.............Jesus came back tomorrow?

Dave,

Actually, if he showed up tomorrow I think I would greet him with hope. Or I hope I would. I would tell him I did my best, but that spiritually I had been so utterly devastated as a boy that many things that others would perhaps take for granted just floated by me unseen.

Having been through hell already I would meet him unafraid. I would say I think I'm a spiritual person and I hope that now we could talk about things. I would say I don't have any challenges; I just want my faith back.

Much love,
Larry

I never like questions that limit my answers when other answers are possible, nor do I think a question is seriously asked when I have reason to believe there is only one answer that would be deemed acceptable.

yikes! Got distracted in a rush to catch a bus and didn't realize when I posted this that I hadn't finished it. Anyway, I guess all I wanted to add was that I didn't mean for this reply to sound like I'm being hostile. I have no feelings at all about it other than it's being a slightly rigged question.

Thinking on it again though, I suppose I owe you the respect of some sort of answer, since I did, after all reply. It would depend on which Jesus it turns out to be...the one who taught "love thy neighbor" or the one who's Dad teaches people not to hurt people by hurting people...for ever and ever. If it's the cool one, then maybe gratitude, if it's the other one, definitely hatred..(unless he hates his Dad for it too.)

I guess for me, the bigger question would be how would he come to me? With gratitude or hate?

If he's anything like the vocal minority of his followers, I would say hate. If he was like I imagine, I'd guess he'd come to me with gratitude for not bastardizing his words. *shrug*

I suppose I would go off that as to how I would come to him.

I'm not sure what I would be sorrowful for however.

I'm convinced that Jesus cares for the broken

and the lowly, and those who mourn

and the orphans (including psychological orphans)

and the hurting, and the abused.

He'll be tough on the abusers, the confident, the proud,

those who have their act "together" but hurt others.

(pufferfish felt he should edit this because he said he was humble - but if he said so he wasn't humble anymore was he?)

Also, in explanation, the reason this is an answer to dKing's question is that we don't know directly how we would respond if Jesus returned immediately. Jesus gave the sermon on the mount which talks about mourning, etc (happy are those that mourn) because our response to those statements indicates our response to the bigger question

Good question, DKing. I guess I would express gratitude for what I was allowed to do here in my short time on this planet. And would be sorrowful for not having been able to do more.

Thanks for asking,
Eddie

Eep. If Jesus appeared tomorrow, I somehow suspect I'd be in the SOL camp on the left-hand side -- you know, for the whole not believing he was the messiah and all.

As I'm bundled off to the lake of fire I guess I'd just say "You know, you could have made it just a wee bit clearer which was the one true faith."

lol^

VLinvictus,

So what I'm hearing you say is that you bear no responsibility to figure it out, that someone else has to do it for you?

There's many of us who lay no claim to being bible scholars, but we ARE TRYING to figure it out, and learn. Even in Acts chapter 8, the eunuch said basically "how can I know unless someone teaches me?"

Can one account for the multitude of faiths in the world? I have my theories which I will reserve for a different day. Meanwhile, please do not label Jesus as a deceiver. Thank you.

Andy

I don't think it was Jesus who was unclear about the faith, I think it was some of the leaders of his church that mixed it all up and put their fingers in it for their own gain... *shrug*